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“I’ll go first,” he said. “I don’t think you’re pretty.”

A frown planted itself firmly on Miyoung’s face. “I thought you were going to tell the truth.”

“I am. Your face is beautiful, but you’re empty. You never let anyone see past the surface, because you think that’s all they want to see. You’re fake and that’s not pretty.”

“If people saw what I really am, they’d hate me.”

“That’s not true. I saw you.”And you were beautiful,he wanted to add, but didn’t. He had a feeling physical compliments didn’t go far with Miyoung.

“Not all of me,” she whispered.

“I see more than you think,” Jihoon insisted. “Do you realize you recoil from people in the hallway? It makes the other kids think you’re disgusted by them, so they react to that, not to you as a person or gumiho or whatever. How could they when that’s all you let them see?”

Miyoung opened her mouth, as if ready to rain a storm of fury on him. Instead, she turned away.

Jihoon wondered if he’d gone too far. Usually, he didn’t worry about saying the exact thing on his mind. This time, he felt regret when he saw the hurt flash underneath Miyoung’s anger.

“I think there’s more to you,” Jihoon tried to clarify. “I heard you helped Changwan this afternoon.”

“Because I hate bullies.”

“See? You’re a better person than you give yourself credit for.”

Miyoung rolled her eyes. “Stopping bad people doesn’t make me a good one.”

Jihoon wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her. “Then why did you save my life?”

Miyoung let out a bitter laugh. “Do you know what I was doing before I saved you? I was sucking out a man’s gi.”

Jihoon winced, but held his ground. He couldn’t be wrong about her. He knew she wasn’t evil and he refused to treat her like a monster. “Sucking out his gi? Like a vampire?”

Miyoung let out a frustrated sigh. “It’s like siphoning energy. It’s slow but it’s like falling asleep.”

“I knew it,” Jihoon said.

“Knew what?” Miyoung frowned.

“It’s because you care,” Jihoon said. “You would never rip a man apart like that body the police found.”

Miyoung was quiet a moment and Jihoon thought perhaps he’d lost her, but she finally replied. “No, that was my mother. I can’t do that.”

“Was he a bad man?” Jihoon asked. “The one whose gi you took?”

“Why would you assume that?”

“Just something you said.”Stopping bad people doesn’t make me a good one.

“He was bad. He’d hurt someone innocent.”

“How do you—”

“Can we talk about something else?” Miyoung interrupted him. “You promised coming up here would make me feelbetter.”

“Oh, sure,” Jihoon said, cursing himself for pushing things. He glanced out toward the city. “Sometimes when I come up here, I pretend to stick a pin into a place I want to go. Kind of like a 3-D map.”

“Okay,” Miyoung said with a hum, considering the landscape, then pointed. “There. The Han River.”

“The whole Han River?” Jihoon asked.